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The Fwiñol Community (Carboncito Mission), a Wichí community, denounced racist and discriminatory practices by a teacher of the Advanced Technician's Program in Bilingual Intercultural Nursing. The program is taught in the municipality of Embarcación, in the northern part of Salta province.

The Community demanded that Mirian Yave be removed from her position on the program's teaching staff. They allege that she mistreats Indigenous students and changed the rules to promote the subject. Fwiñol also asserts that the professor "does not have the profile" to work as an intercultural coordinator.

A government source told Presentes that a general supervisor and the district supervisor visited the site and found insufficient evidence to remove the teacher. Her performance will only be monitored "with classroom observations and pedagogical guidance." A pedagogical support system will also be designed for students who have expressed any difficulties while completing their degree. They stated that there will be "academic monitoring of each student."

Prohibitions and criminal complaints

The community raised the first complaint on April 23 in a note to the general supervisor, Carolina Calderón. Since then, there have been other instances of complaints, including a meeting with the Minister of Education, Cristina Fiore.

However, "they felt that the Ministry didn't provide them with any answers. That's why they filed a police report," Seila Pérez, a member of the Guaraní People and a professor at the program, told this agency. Presentes obtained four criminal complaints filed by students at the program against Yave for abuse, including being prohibited from speaking "their language" in class.

The Bilingual Intercultural Nursing Program emerged from the Fwiñol community itself. It was approved by the State in 2021 by a joint resolution of the Salta Ministries of Health and Education. Members of this community and specialists worked on the curriculum design. The program operates as an annex of the Higher Education Institute (IES) No. 6015.

Pedagogy of cruelty

The Community has been denouncing that indigenous students suffer "psychological and spiritual harm caused by teacher Mirian Yave." This has caused many to drop out of school "for fear of being embarrassed."

The community also criticizes Yave for "never reaching out" to engage in dialogue with community authorities, as is customary. Furthermore, he "toured the community with students, without consulting community authorities, taking photos to publish." They denounce these acts as "violating the protection of their culture and territory and violating the National Constitution and ILO Convention 169."

Fwiñol also noted that the teacher "does not belong to any indigenous community nor has she taken an interest in learning about our culture through intercultural dialogue ." The program's curriculum stipulates that teachers must speak at least one indigenous language. This is not the case with Yave, as recognized by the Ministry of Education itself.

Furthermore, the community maintains that the coordinator in charge of the IES rectorate, Mariela Paredes, engages in arbitrary conduct and gives preferential treatment to non-indigenous teachers.

The Bilingual Intercultural Nursing program was primarily designed for members of Indigenous communities. From its inception, it was established that it should be developed in an Indigenous community and that its instructors should have an intercultural background.

But the community claims that Fwiñol students were quickly excluded. Furthermore, they believe that only 20% of the teaching staff meets the profile envisioned in the curriculum . This "eliminates the possibility of the program being developed with the curriculum provided by the Bilingual Intercultural Nursing approach."

"The pedagogy of cruelty is beginning to be implemented, in the face of teachers who belittle Wichí culture. They demand that students speak Spanish, manipulate the conditions in order to pass or correct their subjects, ignore or fail to listen to Wichí students, in the face of their verbose Spanish and the intolerance of teachers who manipulate schedules and supporting documentation for evaluations, exercising their authoritarianism as teachers through this banking and positivist education," the Community stated.

Dialogue and understanding table

Fwiñol is distributing a manifesto in support of the students "against the racism, discrimination, and oppression they are suffering from practices stemming from the historical conquest and colonization of 532 years ago." In the manifesto, she insists that in response to her complaints to the Ministry of Education and the justice system, "we have only received reprisals with persecution, humiliation, and stigmatization."

To resolve this conflict, Fwiñol proposes a "Roundtable for Political and Intercultural Dialogue and Understanding." The political and legal representatives of the Community, students, specialists, and community members who drafted the curriculum, should participate in the meeting. The legal team of the Andhes organization (which has been supporting Fwiñol), the Coordination of Bilingual Intercultural Education, the Minister of Education, and the Education Commission of the Salta Chamber of Deputies should also participate.

He excludes the Oversight Committee from this Committee, since he claims that the visit by officials from this area began "the hunt and re-victimization" of those who have already suffered violence.

Seila Pérez elaborated on this aspect. In her opinion, state authorities should "listen to the community and the students of Carboncito." "Interculturality cannot be built if the community is not allowed to participate," she explained, before pointing out that the program should be made dependent on the community as a measure to ensure its participation.

In October of last year, Pérez and fellow Kolla teacher Sara Domínguez filed a complaint against Yave with the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INADI) for "racist and discriminatory statements."